BMX biker back flips around the world

Saturday

It’s been two and a half years since Ben Snowden has made it back to his hometown, and oh, the places he’s been.

It’s been two and a half years since Ben Snowden has made it back to his hometown, and oh, the places he’s been.

The Hornell native and pro BMX rider recently returned from a trip to China, where he represented extremely well in the X Games Asia BMX vert and street competitions. He was the only rider from Southern California to qualify for the event, aired on ESPN in 150 countries.

Snowden notched a third-place finish in the street event, scoring a 91 to trail winner and fellow American Garrett Reynolds by just less than four points. Sergio Layos of Spain had the second-place slot with a score of 92 in the competition, which pitted the 30 best BMX riders from all over the world against one another at the Shanghai, China venue.

Snowden registered 84.67 points in the vert competition — good enough for eighth place in the event, which was won by Aussie Tim Wood.

He spent a week in China, his sixth visit to the country and his third time to the X Games in Asia.
For those unfamiliar with the different types of BMX events, Snowden gave a short and sweet explanation to clarify.

“The vert is a 13.5-foot tall half pipe, just a real basic ramp with two walls to do tricks on in a one-minute run,” he said. “BMX street is a course set up to resemble a street — there are a lot of stairs, handrails, ledges, gaps. It’s a more urban-style course.”

Apparently the urban-style course agrees with Snowden as he walked away with a bronze medal in his first year competing in the discipline in China. It may have a bit to do with his roots, as he recalled when he first started out on BMX on the streets of Hornell.

“I grew up with a lot of guys that still ride bikes around Hornell: Matt Miller, Johnny Buckley. Here, me and Matt used to get kicked out of everywhere,” Snowden said with a laugh. “I left Hornell when I was 17 and I had the opportunity to go to California to visit my brother. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but apparently it worked out. At that time, I was big into retail and had the experience of riding.

“I saw the scene, so I called Matt and said, ‘Dude, if we come out here to California, we can do the same thing and get paid for it.’”

The two worked for a company and did exhibitions at schools. Snowden even picked up a gig simply by wearing a ratty old pair of shoes to ride. One day, he encountered a rep from the shoe company who hooked him up with a pair of shoes. The meeting ended up turning into the beginning of a lifestyle for Snowden.

He now travels around from his home base in Santa Ana, Calif., going to shows and competing in competitions. Coming up soon, he’s got the Dew Action Sports Tour, which will be aired on NBC starting in June and running through October. Meanwhile, he’s got the Summer X Games coming up in Los Angeles (an event which will be televised on ESPN), so this summer will be a busy one.

Snowden will get some down time at home, but just because he’s not on the road doesn’t mean he’s not on his bike. He has the most ridiculously decked-out backyard, chock full of ramps and usually swarming with BMXers.

His Santa Ana home was the site of the Nike 6.0 Banksgiving event, at which Nike premiered ramps developed and built specifically to fit into Snowden’s already-existing labyrinth of fun. Over 500 people attended the event, including many of the top riders from the So-Cal circuit and surrounding states to boot.

Being so close to the Hollywood action, Snowden has even been recruited to do stunts for music videos and has appeared on the silver screen more than once. If you check out Avril Lavigne’s ‘Sk8er Boi’ video, you can see his two-wheeled stylings in the background. Snowden’s also done stunts in the movies ‘Accepted’ and ‘Stick It’.

He’s already had one signature bike produced: ‘The Disciple’ and is currently working with Hitman, a So Cal bike company, on a new signature model.

Ben Snowden is the son of Mike and Susie Snowden of Hornell, and is one of 12 children, a fact that has doubtlessly led to his curiosity about how the other half lives.

“My favorite part is going to the different cities and meeting the different riders,” he noted.” I love coming here and meeting the new kids who have started riding BMX since the last time I was here. Just seeing everyone’s local spot where they practice — their skate park, sometimes they’ll have dirt jumps. That’s the most fun is going and checking out everybody’s local scene, because that’s where I came from.

“We did this because it was something fun that we could do with our time that is not harming to ourselves, it wasn’t damaging. It kept us away from drugs; it kept us busy so we weren’t just at home looking for trouble. That was the most fun ever. I specifically met most of the people in my life because of bikes. We were basically just kids who met who had something in common, so we became really good friends.”

His advice for anyone out there looking for a new hobby, whether it be BMX, the entire X Games spectrum or just life in general: “Find people that you have things in common with and have fun and have fun together, and do what you can to expand and push each other to do the best that you can do.”

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
Sharon Advocate ~ 254 Second Ave., Needham, Massachusetts 02494 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service